Sometimes the body count in my reading is high. Of late, the un-body count has been rising. I noticed the presence in W. G. Sebald, when I began reading Austerlitz (2001; Translated from the German, 2011) earlier this year. In the photographs which accompany his narrative, there are no
The winter months are good reading months for me, especially when snug indoors with a view of the snowy cityscape. I've been reading more than I've been reviewing here, so here's a peek into the recent stacks. Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net (1954) and The Sandcastle (1957) were read with
In “Madeline’s Birthday”, the sadness slips to the background, like it does in an Elizabeth Taylor story, with a hint of darkness besides. Madeline is a guest in the Tracy family’s summer home, and her seventeenth birthday affects every resident. Readers briefly inhabit the perspective of most inhabitants (even
In which pages are turned, at a faster rate than usual. Character-soaked, but still fast-paced storytelling. Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves (2017) is set in a future in which the dominant culture has determined that the blood of indigenous peoples holds an inherent value for healing. Exploitation and genocide ensue. This
Boundaries and borders, between countries and between stages of life: Andrée A. Michaud's Boundary darts across the dotted lines, back and forth, sedately in one moment and chillingly the next. Because the story revolves around the murders of two young women in the small community of Bondrée, questions of
